


Toxicity

by glimmeringapples



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28757325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glimmeringapples/pseuds/glimmeringapples
Summary: One shot Dramione - Hermione x Draco, but they never seem to get along.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Toxicity

**Author's Note:**

> hey so I wrote this in English  
> wow love it

Hermione was tired. She was tired of the fighting, the yelling, everything. She never seemed to be right in his eyes. She knew it wasn’t her truly, but it felt the same. Everything they said to each other was volatile, and then it wasn’t. She didn’t get why, or how, but there was something between them that not everyone understood. Something that kept drawing her back no matter how much they fought.

Draco was tired. He was tired of feeling like she didn’t care. I mean obviously he knew she did, just not in the way he wanted. It felt like he was on a merry-go round, and everytime he thought the end was in sight the operator pressed the button that made him whirl around until he was confused. He wanted to get off of the ride, but he couldn’t. Not even when it hit that miniscule window where he could jump off if he was really committed to leaving, he just couldn’t. 

When Hermione looked at him, sometimes she saw the anger she didn’t understand hidden behind his eyes. She definitely saw it when he lashed out. I mean, it's not like she took it sitting down. They matched each other with their intensity, their words. Everyone around them saw the tension, and knew part of the story. The circles they ran around each other, the inability to describe anything that was going on with them. It was exhausting, but Hermione was never known for quitting something that seemed difficult. 

Draco had never met anyone that responded to his shit quite like Hermione. The way the fire sparked in her eyes, the way her witty remarks left him (known for always having a quippy remark handy) almost speechless. Draco had read a lot of things about people being made for each other; how their qualities and personalities matched perfectly, fitting like a glove. He didn’t think he and Hermione were quite like that, but he did know that something about the way they interacted with each other was different; a perfect storm.

Hermione knew what her head thought about this situation. She knew that deep down she thought she was torturing herself even allowing him to be in her life. She knew that the moments they fought vastly outnumbered the moments they didn’t. She found herself in a situation; she simply didn’t know what to do. She felt that spark - maybe spark wasn’t the right word for it - but she felt  _ something _ when they fought; something that she’d never felt anything like before. She’d read enough to know that a good thing never comes often, and while she wasn’t sure this was a good thing, she was sure that it wouldn’t come often.

Draco knew Hermione talked to other people, had even seen her with a few of them; sometimes even heard her complaining about them. But he didn’t expect to  _ see _ her with one of them. The way he could tell she was overtly flirting, trying to get something out of the guy, irked Draco beyond belief. He didn’t mean to catch them, he was just minding his own business in the hallway. But he saw. He saw the guy too. How he knew the guy was trapped under whatever Hermione-spell she put on people. He was so angry, because even though he knew they were nothing - that they would always be nothing - a little part of him had always thought that what they had was special.

Obviously Hermione talked to other people. The yelling, the passive aggressiveness: sometimes it did hurt. She knew they hurt each other. So sometimes she talked to other people. Never seriously seriously, but she did. So when she saw Draco’s fist fly past the corner of her eye into Cormac’s face she was angry. Shocked, of course, and angry. What the hell gave him the right to act like that? They were nothing. He’d made it clear on several occasions that even friendship between them seemed like something that would be too difficult to make work, so why the fuck did he think he could waltz up and punch someone who actually  _ wanted _ to be friends with her?

Draco realized he’d messed up. Royally fucked up to put it precisely. So after his fist made an excruciating connection with that twat’s face (he was most certainly going to be feeling that one later), he turned around and stalked away. He didn’t even understand why he was so upset about Hermione. He really didn’t understand. They could barely make it through class discussions without coming for each other’s throats on some occasions, so why did her moving on with her life seem to affect him as much as it obviously did?

Hermione was screwed. She knew it from the second her heart fluttered after Draco’s fist collided with Cormac’s face. She was definitely not having a normal reaction, and she hated that she felt her emotions were something out of a crappy romance novel that her friend Luna always lectured her about. Why was she genuinely happy Draco punched Cormac? In any other situation she would have hoped, manifested even that Draco himself was the one taking the shot to the eye. But this time? Hermione was almost glad Draco was doing the punching; and she was most definitely glad that his anger was finally focused on someone else.

  
  


Draco heard Hermione before he saw her. Heard her platform sneakers hit the pathway that he had stormed out onto moments earlier. Felt her hand on his shoulder. He whirled around, still out of breath from realizing what a stupid fuck he had made himself into mere minutes before. Then he saw her face, flushed and angry, and he realized the worst was about to happen. The slap that connected with his face left a burning sensation on his right cheek, and he could picture the red glow that he knew would be there for hours to come. 

“What the hell, Hermione?” He locked his fingers around her wrist after he saw the desire to run and hide appear in her eyes. 

“What do you mean ‘What the hell, Hermione?’ I want to know what on this godforsaken Earth just went on in that hallway!” Hermione tried to wrestle her wrist free of his grasp but he held on tighter. She jerked her head away, refusing to make eye contact. Draco jerked it back. 

“A mistake just went on in that hallway, Hermione. A fucking mistake. So don’t come running to me trying to get me to apologize, or beg on the sacred ground before you. I don’t give a shit what you do in your life, or your free time, as long as it’s not slapping me. Got it?” It was Draco’s turn to begin backing away. Hermione grasped his arm and flipped him back to where he was facing her.

“Obviously, Draco, if you didn’t notice, I think you  _ do _ care about what I do in my life. I think it drives you fucking nuts when I talk to other guys. And you know what, maybe I want you to cause a giant scene when I do shit like that.” Hermione tried to calm her breathing. “Maybe I want you to give a shit that I’m not talking to you. Maybe, and this may be a new one for you Draco, but maybe, just maybe, I want you to see how fucking happy I am when someone talks to me like I’m not the devil’s daughter and like I’m a person they enjoy spending time around, because obviously you don’t.” 

“Hermione, if you would take the time to fucking  _ look around _ , maybe you would see that I don’t have this problem with anyone else. I’m not a bitch to everyone, but when I’m around you I get so angry. So angry. And I don’t know why. So I apologize for knocking the shit out of your boyfriend, and I apologize for asking you not to bitch-slap me, but I don’t apologize for anything else.” 

“He’s not my boyfriend, Draco.” Hermione huffed, eyes dilating. 

“That’s what you got out of that, Hermione? That’s what you got?” Draco turned to leave. 

“Maybe I don’t want you thinking I have a boyfriend ok. Maybe I want you to know that I’m waiting for someone special. I’m not just some girl who goes around, flirting and cavorting with any person with a pulse.” Hermione made deadly eye contact with Draco.

“Wow. Who’s that special someone Hermione? If it’s not Cormac, maybe it’s still Ronald Weaselbee huh? Still pining over him?” Draco returned the ferocious eye contact. 

“It’s you Draco. It’s always been you.” Draco sucked in a breath.

“Well that’s fortunate. I thought I was about to have to punch another guy.”

  
  



End file.
